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Fire rips through Penticton apartment building

Dozens displaced from 4 a.m. blaze

Residents living in a Skaha apartment building are homeless after a fire ripped through the top floor of their home around 4 a.m. Tuesday morning.

The fire at a three-story condo complex at Elm Avenue and Parkview Street has since been put out. Penticton Fire Department capt. Mike Wade said there were a couple of things working against crews in their efforts to put out the blaze.

”It is a full timbre construction, so that tends to go up (in flames) a little bit faster,” said Wade.

“We also had a pretty good Southwind that was driving the fire when we showed up on the scene as well. The one thing that was great for this building is that they had a solid separation wall running south to north which helped and stopped the east side of the building from being involved in the fire.”

Pictures taken by residents and neighbors show the entire top floor of the building was taken by flames. Wade said the Penticton Fire Department threw everything they could at the fire but were unable to save most of the west side of the building.

The scene remains blocked off to traffic this morning. Emergency Services also remain and a bus has taken the residents to a nearby shelter.

The cause of the fire isn’t known at this time. It also isn’t known if anyone was injured and if all are accounted for.

More to come.



monique.Tamminga@pentictonwesternnews.com

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